CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS REFLECTED IN DISCUSSION SECTION OF THE THESIS WRITTEN BY
GRADUATE ENGLISH STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITAS NEGERI PADANG
THESIS
REFNA WATI NIM : 15178036
Advisors :
Prof. Dra.YenniRozimela, M.Ed, Ph.D Dr. Ratmanida, M. Ed
GRADUATE ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI PADANG
2021
ABSTRACT
Refna Wati. 2021 : Critical Thinking Skills Reflected in Discussion Section of the Thesis Written by Graduate English Students of Universitas Negeri Padang. Thesis. Graduate Program Universitas Negeri Padang
This research is about critical thinking skill reflected in the discussion section of the thesis written by the graduate english students of Universitas Negeri Padang. The researcher focuses on analyzing six critical thinking skills (interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation and self-regulation) applied by the students in writing discussion section of the thesis. The researcher applied the theory of Facione and Gittens (2013).
This research belongs to descriptive research. The source of data in this research was 9 documents of discussion section of the thesis written by graduate English students at Universitas Negeri Padang. To check data trustworthiness, the researcher used peer debriefing method and involved an auditor.
The result of this research reveal that there were 244 times critical thinking skill reflected in the 9 documents of discussion section of the theses written by graduate english students of Universitas Negeri Padang. The finding shows that the students applied four skills out of six critical thinking skills in writing discussion section of the thesis. They were explanation skill 97 times (39.75%), analysis skill 95 times (38.93%), interpretation skill 43 times (17.62%), and inference skill 9 times (3.68%). The evaluation skill and self-regulation skill did not found in this research.
In short,it can be concluded that the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang have applied four skills out of six critical thinking skills in writing discussion section of the thesis. Explanation skill and analysis skill were the highest applied skills. Those skills are important skills in writing discussion section of thesis which basically contain depth exploration of the result of the research, interpreting it, and comparing it with existing and relevant theory.
ABSTRAK
Refna Wati. 2021 : Kemampuan Berpikir Kritis yang Tercermin dalam Bagian Diskusi di Thesis yang Ditulis oleh Mahasiswa Pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Padang. Thesis. Program Pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Padang.
Penelitian ini meneliti tentang kemampuan berpikir kritis yang tercermin dalam bagian Diskusi di thesis yang ditulis oleh mahasiswa Bahasa Inggris pascasarjana di Universitas Negeri Padang. Peneliti fokus dalam menganalisis enam kemampuan berpikir kritis (interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation and self-regulation) yang digunakan oleh mahasiswa dalam menulis bagian diskusi sebuah thesis. Peneliti menggunakan theory Facione and Gittens (2013).
Penelitian ini termasuk kedalam penelitian deskriptif. Sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah 9 dokumen bagian diskusi dalam thesis yang ditulis oleh mahasiswa Bahasa Inggris pascasarjana di Universitas Negeri Padang. Dalam memeriksa keterpercayaan data, peneliti menggunakan metode tanya jawab dengan sejawat dan auditor.
Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa 224 kali kemampuan berpikir kritis yang tercermin di 9 dokumen bagian diskusi di tesis yang ditulis oleh mahasiswa Bahasa Inggris pascasarjana di Universitas Negeri Padang. Hasilnya memperlihatkan bahwa mahasiswa menerapkan empat dari enam kemampuan berpikir kritis dalam menulis bagian diskusi di thesis. Hasilnya adalah kemampuan explanation 97 kali, analysis 95 kali (38.93%), interpretation 43 kali (17.62%), dan inference 9 kali (3.68%). Kemampuan Evaluation dan Self- Regulation tidak ditemukan dalam penelitian ini.
Singkatnya, dapat disimpulkan bahwa mahasiswa pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Padang sudah menerapkan 4 dari 6 kemampuan berpikir kritis dalam menulis bagian diskusi di tesis mereka. Kemampuan explanation dan analysis merupakan kemampuan yang tertinggi diterapkan. Kemampuan-kemampuan ini merupakan kemampuan penting dalam menulis bagian diskusi di tesis yang mana pada dasarnya berisikan eksplorasi mendalam dari hasil penelitian, menafsirkannya, dan membandingkannya dengan teori yang ada dan relevan.
ACKNOWLEGEMENT
My highest and deepest gratitude destined for ALLAH SWT that has given me so much bless and also the best regard for Rasulullah SAW, His family, friends Critical Thinking Skills Reflected in Discussion Section of Thesis Written by Graduate English Students of Universitas Negeri Padang
not be able to finish this thesis without support, guidance, and valuable advices from her advisors and other people. Therefore, the writer would like to express her great gratitude and special thanks to :
1. Prof. Dra. Yenni Rozimela, M,Ed., Ph.D. and Dr. Ratmanida, M.Ed as advisors who gave guidance and advices in completing this thesis
2. Dr. Edi Trisno, M.A and Desvalini Anwar, S.S, M.Hum, Ph.D.as the contributors and examiners who have given valuable contribution and suggestions in completing this thesis
3. The director of Graduated Program of State University of Padang , all of the lecturers, especially those of English Education Program who have taught and trained during her study and to all staff who provided supporting facilities well.
4. My beloved, loving and caring parents, family, friends that cannot be mentioned one by one.
The writer realized that this thesis is far from being perfect, therefore, constructive advice, ccritics, and suggestions, from the readers will be much appreaciated. The writer expects that this thesis can give valuable contribution to the readers.
Padang, Februari 2021
The Writer
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ...i
ABSTRAK ...ii
PERSETUJUAN AKHIR TESIS ...iii
PERSETUJUAN KOMISI UJIAN TESIS ...iv
SURAT PERNYATAAN ...v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...vi
TABLE OF CONTENT ...vii
LIST OF TABLES ...ix
LIST OF FIGURES ...x
LIST OF GRAPHICS ...xi
LIST OF APPENDICES ...xii
CHAPTER I:INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Problem ... 1
B. Identification of the Problem ... 5
C. Focus of the Research Problem ... 6
D. Formulation of the Problem ... 6
E. Research Questions ... 6
F. Purpose of the Research ... 7
G. Significant of the Research ... 8
H. Definition of the Key Terms ... 9
CHAPTER II:REVIEW OFRELATED LITERATURE A. Review the Related Theories 1. Writing ... 10
1.1. The Concept of Writing ... 10
1.2. Types of Writing ... 11
1.3. Process of Writing... 13
2. Critical Thinking ... 14
2.1. The Concept of Critical Thinking ... 14
2.2. Kinds of Critical Thinking Skills ... 16
2.3. Critical Thinking in Writing ... 21
3. A thesis ... 24
3.1 .Elements of Thesis ... 24
3.2. Discussion Chapter of Thesis... 25
B. Review of Related Findings ... 27
C. Conceptual Framework ... 30
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Design ... 32
B. C. D. Checking Data Trustworthiness ... 33
E. Technique of Data Analysis ... ...33
CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Research Findings ... 36
1. Explanation Skill ... 38
2. Analysis Skill ... 41
3. Interpretation Skill ... 45
4. Inference Skill ... 49
5. Evaluation Skill ... 52
6. Self-Regulation Skill ... 53
B. Discussion ... 53
C. Limitation of the Research ... 56
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION AND SUGGESTION 1. Conclusions ... 58
2. Implication ... 58
3. Suggestion ... 59 BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES
LIST OF TABLES
1. ...16
2. Critical Thinking Skills and Prompt Words/Questions ...17
3. Six Core Critical Thinking by Facione and Gittens ...19
4. Data Analysis Presentation ...34
5. The Frequency of Critical Thinking Skill reflected by graduate Students in discussion of thesis ...37
6. The distribution frequency of explanation skill ...38
7. The distribution frequency of analysis skill ...41
8. The distribution frequency of interpretation skill ...46
9. The distribution frequency of inference skill ...49
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Process of Writing ...13 2. The Conceptual Framework ...30
LIST OF GRAPHICS
1. The frequency of critical thinking Skill reflected by
Graduate students in discussion section of thesis ...38
2. The distribution frequency of explanation skill ...39
3. The distribution frequency of analysis skill ...42
4. The distribution frequency of interpretation skill ...46
5. The distribution frequency of inference skill ...50
LIST OF APPENDICES
1. Surat Pernyataan dari Auditor ...64
2. Distribution of Reflection of Critical Thinking Skill in Discussion Section of Thesis ...65
3. Data Analysis Presentation edited by Editor External ...66
4. Data Analysis Presentation ...135
5. Source of data ...202
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Problem
In higher education, writing is a compulsory subject that has to be learnt by the students especially for students who learn language. It is important because almost all activities in learning process need writing skill, such as writing in doing assignment, doing the task and others. Writing is also a tool of communication to share their ideas, opinion, point of view, and information in the forms of essay, journal and paper. For completing their study, the students also have to conduct a research and make their research reports in written form. That is why the students in higher education are expected to have a good writing skill.
There are many aspects that should be mastered by the students to produce a good writing and to be a good writer.They are content, grammar, vocabulary, form, mechanism, cohesion and coherent.Content presents the information that will be given to the readers; grammar is how the sentence structures in conveying the information; vocabulary is the diction in choosing suitable words in describing the information; form is the type of writing will be chosen; mechanism is the technical understanding of the function appearance and operation of particular object , and cohesion and coherent refer to intratext connectedness and the contextual fitness of the ideas (Hughes, 1998:57). In applying these aspect, critical thinking is needed.
In higher education, critical thinking is really important and it is listed among the objectives and outcomes in many programs (Guleker, 2015: 6). Critical thinking helps the students in giving guidance in thinking, working and assistingthem in determining links with other things more accurately. The students who are critical thinkers will address argument and collectrelevant information to support their thought and belief. If it is related with writing, critical thinking skill will help the students to decide what sources of information that will be used to support their idea, how to interpret those infomation and organize their writing to be more logical and accurate.
Tapper in Vyncke (2012:10) states that in higher education context, critical thinking is categorized as the abilities or skills in selecting, evaluating, analyzing, reflecting, questioning, inferring and judging. Those skill in writing can be observed from the opinion or argument that the students explore in their writing project. More over, it can also be seen from the information that they select to support their ideas or arguments, link them to each other, and givereason and evidence in order toconvince the reader.
Regarding with the statement above, argumentative text is one of the text genres that can promote students critical thinking skills. Theses are one type of argumentative writing (Emilia, 2010:102). The English graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang are required to write a thesis as a partial fulfillment of the requirements to geta master degree. A thesis should have the element of : introduction, the Literature Review, Methodology, Result and Discussion, and Conclusion (Tim Penyusun, 2011).Introduction discusses the background of the
problem that will be studied. The second chapter, Literature review, consists of the theories that will support the study. The methodology chapter discusses about the method that will be used in collecting the data. The fourth chapter is Result and Discussion that contain research finding and discussion of the matter studied.
The last chapter is conclusion and suggestion that summarize the findings briefly.
TheDiscussion and Result chapter playssignificant rolesin every thesis (Paltridge and Stairfield in Emilia, 2010:102) because this chapter presentsand discusses the findings in details and it needs the reseacher strong argument to convince the reader about the findings. In arguing the result, the writer should provide and explore the evidence and the data clearly. It can be in the form of graphs, tables, or pictures. The writer also need to dig up the data with the related theory and integrate the result to get the implication for current theory and study (Rudestam and Newton,2001 in Qaseem (2017:16)). All of the aspectsin this chapter contains deep arguments and for thatcritical thinking is needed.
There are some skills in critical thinking (Facione and Facione, 1994).
First skill is interpretation. This skill express the meaning of a variety of experiences, situations, data , events and so on. The second skill is analysis.This skill notice and relate relationship among statements, questions, concept, or other form of representation that intends to express beliefs, judgements, experiences, reasons, information or opinion. The next skill is explanation. This skill convey, justify and present the argument to be clear and understandable. Then the inference skillneed to draw a logical conclusion and to form notion and hypothesis and to decide the consequences of data, statements evidences and etc. Evaluation
skill is the other skill in critical thinking. This skill evaluate the credibilty of
and so on. The last is self regulation skill. This skill self consciously monitor ive activities , the aspects used in those activities in educing the result. Thus, it can be concluded that critical thinking skill is very essential in writing a thesis, especially in writing discussion chapter. Therefore, the students are expected to have those skills in order to produce a good writing thesis.
several researchers. They found that there was a correlation and positive link between critical thinking and argumentative writing (Sharaqah, 2014; Pei, et all, 2017; Putri, 2018). Previously, other researchers conducted studies which focusing on critical thinking elements in writing (Indah, 2017; Widyastuti, 2018).
nking which is et all, 2020).
Rachmawati (2015) found out that all of the critical thinking aspects (in presenting arguments (claim, reason, evidence, and conclusion) covered in discussion text written by the students. Pramonojati, et all (2020) investigated
score of critical
that critical thinking skill is important aspect that used for create background of study in research.
From the previous research above, it can be seen that there is a gap that has not been discussed by some researchers, namely the skills of critical thinking.
In previous studies there were only investigated critical thinking elements, critical thinking aspects and others but there is no one discussed the skills of critical thinking in discussion section of thesis like interpretation skills, analysis skill, inference skill, explanation and etc.
Based on the issue above, studies concerning critical thinking skills reflected in discussion section of thesis need to be conducted. Thus,this study entittled Critical Thinking Skills Reflectedin Discussion Section of Thesis Written by Graduate Students .
B. Identification of the Problem
Since critical thinking skills such as interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and others are needed in writing a discussion section in a thesis, the students are expected to have those skills. Yet, some students in writing a discussion section in a thesis sometimes ignore these skills. In writing the discussion section, the students tended to neglect critical thinking. For example in interpreting the data, they sometimes gave too much description of data instead of interpreting of their data. The also forgot to relate his/her data with the relevant theories since they only focused on describing the result.
The other problem was some students are still not clear in giving arguments to support their opinions and reasons about the issues they wrote.
Sometimes, they stated arguments but were not followed by evidences that casted doubt on their arguments. Therefore, It influenced their writing productsand as a result they cannot convince the reader.
C. Focus of the Research Problem
From the identification of the problem above, focus of this research wasanalyzingthe critical thinking skillsreflected in the discussion section of a thesis written by graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang. There are some skills proposed by some expertswhich can identify the students critical skill in writing. Yet, in this research, the researcher regardedto the theory proposed by Facione and Gittens (2013).
D. Formulation of the Problem
Due to the focus of the research above, the problems are then formulated as follow:whatwerethe critical thinking skills reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of UniversitasNegeri Padang?
E. Research Questions
Based on the formulation of the problem above, the researcher formulated research questions as follow:
a. What are the interpretation skills of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang?
b. What are the analysis skills of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang?
c. What are the inference skills of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang ?
d. What are the evaluation skills of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang?
e. What are the explanation skills of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang?
f. What are the self-regulation skills of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang?
F. Purpose of the Research
In relation to the research question above, the purposes of this research were:
a. To find out and explain the interpretation skill of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang
b. To find out and explain the analysis skill of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang
c. To find out and explain the inference skill of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang
d. To find out and explain the evaluation skill of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang
e. To find out and explain the explanation skill of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang
f. To find out and explain the self-regulation skill of critical thinking reflected in discussion section of thesis written by the graduate students of Universitas Negeri Padang
G. Significance of the Research
The result of this research may contribute to: theoretically, this research is expected to enrich the theories for the lecturer and students on the field of critical thinking area, especially in critical thinking skill in writing. Second, practically, the result of this research is expected to raise awareness among the lecturers and students about the critical thinking in writing subject. In order they can apply critical thinking in teaching and learning process, especially in writing disscussion section of writing.
H. Definition of the Key Terms
To avoid misunderstanding of the term used in this research, the key terms are defined as follow:
1. Critical Thinking skill isthe ability of cognitive process in developing logical and reflective judgement about what someone believes and does and the ability to analyze and evaluate thought.
2. Discussion section is one of the section found in chapter IV that shows in-depth exploration of the result, gives the details about the meaning of the finding and cites relevant studies.
3. Thesis is a long essay or dissertation involving personal research, written by a candidate for a college degree.
